Vegetable juice aids 'strive for five'

DAVIS, Calif., Oct. 27 (UPI) -- University of California-Davis researchers say drinking vegetable juice is an effective way to help people increase their vegetable intake.

Study author Carl Keen says seven out of 10 adults fall short of the daily vegetable intake recommended by the U.S. Dietary Guidelines. The researchers studied whether drinking vegetable juice could be a simple behavior change to help boost the intake of vegetables to "strive for five," or eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day.

Three groups of healthy men and women received dietary counseling on ways to get more vegetables but two of the groups were instructed to consume at least one serving of vegetable juice, in the form of V8.

Of those two groups, one drank one 8-ounce glass of vegetable juice every day and the other drank two 8-ounce glasses of vegetable juice every day as part of a balanced eating plan.

The finding, presented at the American Dietetic Association annual conference, found that those who received dietary counseling and consumed vegetable juice were far more likely than those who received counseling alone to meet the daily vegetable recommendations of five servings a day.